Monthly Archives: April 2016

In my final year of undergrad, I had a criminology presentation that was about 10-15% of my grade. I had done alright with the other %, so I had the dumb idea that 10-15% of my grade is no biggie, I would just chill and do it whenever. Naturally, procrastination took its course. I ended up preparing the presentation two hours before the lecture (bear in mind this is a presentation that had been assigned over a month and a half in advance). Writing that now I realise how stupid that was and in FINAL YEAR! Erm, yeah, kindly avoid using this information you are now privy to, to make an assumption of my whole attitude to education, I promise you, this was just an error in judgement.

Anyway, where was I? Aah yes, two hours before presentation time. When it was time to get to class, I literally went in with summary knowledge. Smart me of course – not a snarky comment, I was actually street smart for this one – decided I cannot be unprepared and look unprepared. That would be two levels of fuckery I could not afford. So I dressed up like I had bare time to look good since that would give the impression my work was long done, walked in there confidently, and presented my summary like I had dived in a whole ocean of information and re-emerged from under the waters a knowledge goddess. During the Q&A, I answered the questions presented like I knew what I was saying, giving the lecturer the “anymore questions for me to boss out? I can go all day” look.

At the end of my presentation, he says to me “this was a GREAT presentation. Well prepared and your arrangement of information was brilliant. VERY WELL DONE”. He wore that “this is impressive” look on his face and I wore that *cue in fake modest smile* “if only you knew” look on mine. I smiled, said “thank you”, pulled out my USB from the computer, and walked back to my seat with my head held up like “minor ting”.

Vision Statement:To bring together as many young people from different Afrikan countries, backgrounds and cultures as possible, under a collective vision of empowering Afrika and the Afrikan people. Through monthly ‘Google Hangouts Live’ sessions with the Afrikan youth, The D.A.M Project seeks to reverse the effects of colonialism on the Afrikan mind, through conversation aimed at raising cultural awareness. I believe that without a cultural revolution (a resetting of the Afrikan mind), any other form of revolution, be it political or economic, remains retrogressive as we lack understanding of who we are, making it difficult, if not impossible to know where we are headed. It is only after finding ourselves, through our history, that we can truly address the predicaments Afrika faces today.

I shared this on my Facebook profile earlier and figured to post it here too.

A couple of people ask me why I spell Afrika with a ‘K’ and not a ‘C’, so in case you’ve been wondering, here’s a brief explanation.

The alphabets, as we know them, are not indigenous to Afrikan languages, however, most Afrikan languages spell Afrika with a K, for example Swahili. Afrika was initially spelt with a ‘K’ before European invasion of the continent. When the Europeans settled on the continent, the ‘K’ in many words was replaced by ‘C’, because phonetically it sounded so. Accra for example, was initially Akkra and Congo – Kongo.

Kenyan based Pan-Afrikan writers’ collective Jalada Africalast week published the short story, Ituĩka Rĩa Mũrũngarũ: Kana Kĩrĩa Gĩtũmaga Andũ Mathiĩ Marũngiĩ, by infamous Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thing’o in over 30 languages, namely; Kikuyu, Ahmharic, Dholuo, Kikamba, Lwisukha-Lwidakho, Ikinyarwada, Arabic, Luganda, Kiswahili, Afrikaans, Hausa, Meru, Lingala, IsiZulu, Igbo, Ibibio, Somali, isiNdebele, XiTsonga, Nandi, Rukiga, Lugbarati, Shona, Lubukusu, Kimaragoli, Giriama, Sheng, Ewe, Naija Languej, Marakwet plus French and English, making it the single most translated African short story. This is big, and it is not getting nearly half the attention it deserves. This article seeks to stress on the significance of this and why it is what every single Afrikan should be fussing about right now.